What age/size to sex Pelvicachromis pulcher fry?

[Colin_BC]

My pulchers spawned back on September 14 with the eggs hatching about 5 days later and freeswimming 4 days after that. I have my remaining 60 fry in a 32G growout tank. They are now 11 weeks old roughly a little bigger than fully grown neon/glolight tetra's. I know that Krib's can reach sexual maturity at 6 months (females usually sooner than males), but I don't know at what age or size their gender will be easy to determine. What should I be looking for to easily tell the males from the females? Thanks in advance for any help on this! here's a pic of the fry feasting on bloodworms out of a cone worm feeder from last week.

Colin

 

[Colin_BC]

Any idea's?

 

[cometcattle]

I would say within the next month or so, but some of those already look female.

The females will stay shorter (in length) and have a more rounded belly, whereas the males will be more "streamlined".

 

[Colin_BC]

Thanks for your thoughts, cometcattle. I've read that the males will have colour running the entire length of the dorsal fin whereas the females colour doesn't extend all the way to the tip of the dorsal. I've searched here at TFF and via google re when the sex of pulcher fry can be determined, but have found nothing on the immediate subject. Do you know of any other tell tale ways to distinguish the boys from the girls? I'm hoping for a fairly even mix of booth genders, but if I had to have more of one it would be the females as they're more colourlful. Once they fatten and age up a bit more, I've got a LFS that will take them for store credit @ $1.25-$2.25 (CAD) per fish.

Colin

 

[guppymonkey]

You can start sexing them when they reach a few centimeters long but some develop faster then others. Also you can start looking for some of the spots on the tails of the males as some develop early.

How large are your kribs now? I just had a batch born in the beginning of November and just separated them from their parents yesterday. Do they continue growing at a quick rate?

 

[Colin_BC]

I've found the rate of growth depends on how often they eat. since I've started feeding almost solely frozen foods 3-4 times a day, the growth has been quite noticeable. Thanks for the suggestion guppymonkey, however I don't find the spots to be an accurate way to sex pulchers (FKA Krib). Both the parents have spots on the back of the dorsal fin as well as on the tail fin. Right now, the smallest of the pulcher fry is about the size of a fully grown neon tetra. I do have about a dozen that are considerably larger then the rest. They're the first to attack my hand if/when it enters the tank. Today I noticved that there are a few fry that are started to get a pink tinge too their bellies, so I know/think these will be girls.

Colin

 

[guppymonkey]

I've found the rate of growth depends on how often they eat. since I've started feeding almost solely frozen foods 3-4 times a day, the growth has been quite noticeable. Thanks for the suggestion guppymonkey, however I don't find the spots to be an accurate way to sex pulchers (FKA Krib). Both the parents have spots on the back of the dorsal fin as well as on the tail fin. Right now, the smallest of the pulcher fry is about the size of a fully grown neon tetra. I do have about a dozen that are considerably larger then the rest. They're the first to attack my hand if/when it enters the tank. Today I noticved that there are a few fry that are started to get a pink tinge too their bellies, so I know/think these will be girls.

Colin

Spots on the dorsal and caudal fins of females are pretty rare usually. Its usually a sure sign of a male to have spots on the caudal fin. I guess you have a rare female. Do you feed your fry frozen or live food in addition to dry food?

 

[Colin_BC]

I feed my fry mostly frozen food with a bit of mixed flake food. I fed primarily baby brine shrimp for the first month or so. Both my male and female were the picks of their respective tanks when I bought them seperately (small female, full grown male). My first female krib had 3 brilliant spots on her tail, but she had multiple ailments affecting her when I got her (noticed when I got home) and died a couple days later.

Colin

 

[Mamaschild]

Spots on the dorsal and caudal fins of females are pretty rare usually. Its usually a sure sign of a male to have spots on the caudal fin. I guess you have a rare female. Do you feed your fry frozen or live food in addition to dry food?[/QUOTE]

I keep hearing people say you can sex Pulchers (Kribs) by seeing if they have spots on the dorsal or caudel. It doesn't work. I've had females with spots and without. I've never owned a male with spots, but I've seen them with spots. You can't sex them that way.

Colin, you've got a BEAUTIFUL batch of Kribs there. Great job. You should be able to sex them at that size, as I could almost sex mine at 1/2". You've got the idea with the color on the top edge of the dorsal. That's how I've always sexed mine even at 1/2". The pink belly won't work well until they become breeding age. BOTH males and females will get a tint on the belly which can be misleading. My first male was lavender all over his tummy.

From my experiences growing them out, the males NORMALLY grow faster. Not always, but for the most part. Since you've actually raised these, that may help you, where it won't help someone buying juveniles. As for sex ratio, that seems to be determined by PH. over 7 and you get more of one, under 7 and you get more of the other (sorry, I can never remember which is which).

HTH

 

[cometcattle]

I keep hearing people say you can sex Pulchers (Kribs) by seeing if they have spots on the dorsal or caudel. It doesn't work. I've had females with spots and without. I've never owned a male with spots, but I've seen them with spots. You can't sex them that way.

I agree 100%. I just started hearing this on TFF the past couple monthes.

Colin - your lucky to have a LFS to give you credit. If I ever tried to breed kribs again, I would do it with a pair of "scarlet" kribs I saw. They were $56 US a pair (I think). I know they are rare and stores will always take them in trade.

 

[Colin_BC]

I just googled scarlet kribs (Pelvicachromis sacrimontis). They look quite similar to the pulchers, but both sexes having nice scarlet bellies. Did I see correctly that they sometimes or always have red lips? I've never seen them around here. I've told my LFS owner to keep his eyes open for a couple nice Rock Kribs (Paralabidochromis sp.) for me. He said he has only ever seen a couple of them in his life, let alone for sale, but he'll watch. He gets lots of my money as I'm in there usually at least once a week. Seems to me he will take most any healthy fish for store credit. There are a few types he won't buy or sell, such as SAE's. He said once the pulchers get to be about 1.25-1.75" he'll take them. They're nearing that size now, but I'm thinking he's thinking more like 2 inchs and more filled out.

Colin